Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

Azeri president, EU envoy praise ties
Azartac news agency, Baku
9 Feb 05
[No dateline as received] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received a
delegation led by the special envoy of the European Union in the South
Caucasus, Heikki Talvitie, at the Presidential Palace on 9 February.
The head of state expressed his satisfaction with the rapid development
of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union and our
country’s participation in the EU’s New Neighbourhood policy.
Touching on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagornyy Karabakh conflict,
Ilham Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan’s position on the settlement
of this conflict is in line with international legal norms and
principles – the territorial integrity of countries and inviolability
of borders. He said that the conflicts in the former Soviet Union,
which are accompanied by aggressive separatism, inflict great damage
on the cause of establishing peace and security in regions. From this
point of view, the objective position expressed in the documents of
the Council of Europe and other international organizations condemning
Armenian separatism and Armenia’s aggression against our country is
of great importance.
The head of state expressed his confidence that cooperation between
Azerbaijan and the European Union would continue to develop.
Mr Talvitie highly assessed the expansion of relations between the
European Union and Azerbaijan and expressed his confidence that these
relations will continue to strengthen.
The meeting also discussed various spheres of cooperation between
Azerbaijan and the European Union, regional problems and other issues
of mutual interest.

Agence France Presse
4 février 2005 vendredi 4:51 PM GMT
Dialogue “sans tabou” entre parlementaires français et dirigeants
turcs (PAPIER GENERAL)
Par Sylvie MALIGORNE
ANKARA 4 fév 2005
Des discussions “sans tabou” entre parlementaires français et des
dirigeants et membres de la société civile turcs se sont déroulées
jeudi et vendredi à Ankara, lors du déplacement du président de
l’Assemblée nationale française Jean-Louis Debré et des chefs des
groupes politiques au palais Bourbon.
Jeudi au premier jour de cette visite, inédite de par la composition
de la délégation française, les échanges ont été “libres” et
“francs”. Tant du côté français que du côté turc, les mots ont été
les mêmes, alors que les relations entre les deux pays sont tendues.
Depuis avril 1992, date de la visite de François Mitterrand dans ce
pays, aucun chef d’Etat français ou de Premier ministre n’a fait le
déplacement.
Le contentieux est lourd depuis la reconnaissance du génocide
arménien par l’Assemblée nationale en 2001, puis avec les débats
passionnés en France suscités par l’éventuelle adhésion d’Ankara à
l’Union européenne.
Dans ce contexte, la venue de M. Debré et des présidents de groupe,
Bernard Accoyer (UMP), Jean-Marc Ayrault (PS), Alain Bocquet (PCF) et
Hervé Morin (UDF), tous avec des approches différentes, a été
qualifiée jeudi de “très importante” par le président de la grande
assemblée nationale turque Bulent Arinc.
Il s’agissait d'”écouter et comprendre, de se dire la vérité”, selon
les termes de M. Debré, et de répondre “avec sincérité” aux
questions, selon M. Arinc.
De fait, les entretiens avec le Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan
ou avec les parlementaires turcs ont portés sur tous les sujets de
friction. Selon un membre de la délégation, M. Erdogan s’est étonné
que le problème arménien puisse mettre en péril le référendum en
France sur la Turquie, qui n’aurait pas lieu avant une dizaine
d’année: “Je ne savais pas que 400.000 Arméniens pouvaient faire
échouer un référendum”.
“évolution”
Pour autant, M. Erdogan est apparu ouvert, selon M. Ayrault, donnant
“le sentiment d’avoir pris conscience de la réalité du problème”
arménien et d’être disposé à évoluer pour “apaiser ces questions”.
“Il a parlé de travail d’historiens sur les archives. C’est une
évolution”, a-t-il dit.
Jeudi, lors d’une conférence de presse avec M. Arinc, M. Debré a
énuméré sans ambage les points d’achoppement: “Chypre, les droits de
l’Homme, le problème des Arméniens”, provoquant des réactions vives
de la presse turque.
De son côté, Arinc a regretté que le débat en France sur l’adhésion
de son pays se fasse “sur un terrain plein de malentendus”. “La
Turquie de l’opinion publique française est très différente de la
Turquie réelle”, a-t-il dit. En ligne de mire notamment les
déclarations du président de l’UMP Nicolas Sarkozy -“si la Turquie
était en Europe, ça se saurait”- ou l’attitude de celle de Philippe
de Villiers, très hostile à l’adhésion d’Ankara.
Les Turcs “croient que nous sommes opposés parce qu’ils sont turcs.
Or la question est celle de la possibilité de faire une Europe
puissance”, a confié M. Morin, opposé à l’entrée de la Turquie.
Partisan d’un partenariat privilégié, M. Accoyer a noté “le souhait
très fort” d’Ankara d’adhérer, tout en estimant que “le chemin était
encore long” avant que l’adhésion ne soit possible.
Vendredi, avant de se rendre à Istanbul, face aux représentants
d’associations des droits de l’Homme, les parlementaires ont mesuré
les efforts à faire. Néanmoins, M. Debré a jugé que le processus
d’adhésion était “une très grande chance” pour ce pays, contraint
ainsi à des réformes.

Conflicts Cited in Iraq Oil Program
The Washington Post
Friday February 4, 2005
By Colum Lynch, Washington Post Staff Writer
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 3 — The former director of the U.N. oil-for-food
program had serious conflicts of interest that violated the integrity of
the world body and helped undermine economic sanctions against Iraq,
U.N.-appointed investigators reported Thursday.
Benon Sevan repeatedly sought — and received — from Iraqi officials
the rights to purchase millions of barrels of discounted oil while he
was running the program, and then misled investigators about his
relationship with an Egyptian national who sold those rights for $1.5
million in profits, the inquiry found.
The findings are the first to come from a panel appointed by U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan to investigate allegations that the $64
billion oil-for-food program was corrupt and mismanaged. Those
allegations have led to calls for Annan’s resignation by some members of
Congress and have spurred probes by five congressional committees.
Those, like the probe by the United Nations, are continuing.
In its preliminary report Thursday, the U.N.-appointed panel, led by
former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, also said that former
secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali was one of a few U.N. officials
who improperly helped steer contracts related to the program to selected
companies, and that two of his relatives were involved in the sale of
the oil allocated to Sevan.
Annan announced that he will pursue “disciplinary proceedings” against
Sevan and another U.N. official, Joseph Stephanides, who allegedly
helped the British government circumvent the United Nations’ competitive
bidding process to steer a contract to a British company. Stephanides
did not respond to a request for comment.
Annan said Volcker’s report contains “extremely troubling evidence of
wrongdoing” by Sevan.
“Should any of the findings of the inquiry give rise to criminal
charges, the United Nations will cooperate with national law enforcement
authorities pursuing those charges, and in the interests of justice I
will waive the diplomatic immunity of the staff member concerned,” Annan
said.
Annan noted that he is awaiting a report by Volcker probing possible
wrongdoing by Annan’s son, Kojo, who received $150,000 over a five-year
period from a Swiss company while it profited from the oil-for-food
program. The company maintains that Kojo Annan, who had been an
employee, had nothing to do with its work in Iraq and that the payments
were part of a standard agreement that would bar him from working for a
competitor.
Sevan’s attorney, Eric L. Lewis, said that “Mr. Sevan never took a
penny” from the program. Volcker’s commission has “succumbed to massive
political pressure and now seeks to scapegoat” Sevan, Lewis said.
“Mr. Sevan’s goal throughout the life of the program was to expedite the
pumping of oil in order to pay for urgently needed humanitarian
supplies” in Iraq, he said.
Some in Congress viewed Volcker’s report as vindication of their
criticism of the organization. Rep. Henry J. Hyde (news, bio, voting
record) (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations
Committee, said the findings “reinforce evidence we have developed
detailing lapses in program oversight, management, fiscal controls and
an absence of even the most rudimentary standards of accountability.”
Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, said that “part of the blame for the current imbroglio lies
with the U.N.” but that “we must recognize that those nations who sat on
the Security Council . . . another during the life of the program — and
this includes the United States — must also answer questions as to why
they, too, did not pay greater scrutiny to this program.”
The United Nations established the program in December 1996 to allow
Iraq, which had been put under U.N. sanctions after its 1990 invasion of
Kuwait, to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.
The program helped ease the plight of millions of undernourished Iraqis,
but it also provided the Iraqi government with at least $2 billion in
illicit kickbacks and payoffs, according to a report last year by CIA
adviser Charles A. Duelfer. Volcker said that the government received
far more in illicit funds from unauthorized oil sales outside the
oil-for-food program to Jordan, Turkey, Syria and Egypt.
Volcker’s report also said U.N. auditors had “inadequate” resources and
staff to conduct a proper investigation of the program, and it charged
that the United Nations violated its own competitive bidding practices
in 1996 when it selected three companies — BNP Paribas of France,
Saybolt Eastern Hemisphere BV of the Netherlands and Lloyd’s Register
Inspection Ltd. of Britain — to monitor Iraq’s trade.
Boutros-Ghali, of Egypt, acting on the instructions of the Iraqi
government, helped steer a banking contract to hold Iraqi’s oil revenues
to BNP, the report said. “When provided with the short list, he
contacted the government of Iraq and asked for its choice,” the report
said. “Apparently the Government of Iraq indicated a preference for BNP,
and the secretary general acquiesced.”
Boutros-Ghali could not be reached at a number in Paris provided by the
United Nations.
Volcker said the “most disturbing finding” is that Sevan solicited oil
for a small company headed by an Egyptian relative of Boutros-Ghali’s. A
brother-in-law of Boutros-Ghali “was a likely intermediary” between the
two men, the report said.
Shortly after he was appointed to run the oil-for-food program in
October 1997, Sevan championed an Iraqi initiative to allow Iraq to use
its oil profits to buy $300 million worth of spare parts to repair its
oil infrastructure. Two days after the U.N. Security Council adopted the
proposal in June 1998, Sevan traveled to Baghdad and asked Iraq’s oil
minister, Amir Rashid, to grant an associate rights to buy discounted
oil, the report said.
The Iraqi government granted the oil company headed by the Boutros-Ghali
relative rights to buy 1.8 million barrels of oil, which were sold for a
profit of $300,000.
The report continued with the following account:
Sevan subsequently made a similar request, but the Iraqis cut the oil
allocation to 1 million barrels to express disappointment with his
failure to counter U.S. efforts to block the export of some spare parts.
Sevan returned to Iraq in the summer of 1999 with a fresh proposal to
expand the spare-parts arrangement. Within five days of his departure,
Iraq approved the rights to buy 2 million barrels of oil, which the oil
company sold for $500,000 in profits.
Volcker’s team has not proved that Sevan received money from the
company’s oil deals. Volcker is examining cash payments Sevan received
between 1999 and 2003 amounting to $160,000. Sevan has filed U.N.
financial disclosure forms saying the money came from his aunt, who died
last year after falling into an elevator shaft.
“Her lifestyle did not suggest this to be so,” the report said. “She was
a retired Cyprus government photographer living on a modest pension.”
“Mr. Sevan placed himself in a grave and continuing conflict of interest
situation,” the report concluded. “The Iraqi government, in providing
such allocations, certainly thought they were buying influence.”
;cid=1802&e=15&u=/washpost/20050204/ts_washpost/a60911_2005feb3

Annan Vows Action Against UN Staff in Iraq Program

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A probe into the U.N. oil-for-food program
for Iraq (news – web sites) said the director of the operation got oil
allocations for a firm run by a friend, and U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan (news – web sites) vowed to discipline him.

Benon Sevan, who ran the humanitarian program, was accused in a report
from Paul Volcker, the former head of the U.S. Federal Reserve (news –
web sites), of soliciting and getting the allocations for a trading
firm connected to the family of former Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali.
A second official, Joseph Stephanides, now director of Security
Council affairs, was alleged to have intervened in selecting large
contractors for the program he helped organize in 1996, before Sevan
took over in late 1997.
Annan said he too would be disciplined and that if criminal acts were
committed, diplomatic immunity would be lifted.
The oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996 and ended in
November 2003, allowed Saddam Hussein (news – web sites)’s government
to sell oil in order to buy humanitarian goods. It was intended to
ease the life of ordinary Iraqis under 1990 U.N. sanctions.
The fraud allegations have cast a shadow over the world body and Annan
himself, who chose Volcker to lead an independent investigation.
“I think it is a fact that Mr. Sevan placed himself in a grave and
continuing conflict of interest situation that violated explicit
U.N. rules and violated the standards of integrity essential to a
high-level international civil servant,” Volcker told a news
conference.
Sevan, a Cypriot, issued his own statement.
“Mr Sevan never took a penny,” his lawyer Eric Lewis
said. “Unfortunately, in the current political climate, the
Independent Inquiry Committee needs to find someone to blame.”
But Annan, who took over the top U.N. post from Boutros-Ghali in
January 1997, said in a statement the report contained “extremely
troubling evidence of wrongdoing” by Sevan, who has retired from the
United Nations (news – web sites) but gets a token salary because of
the inquiry.
‘THE SECRETARY-GENERAL IS SHOCKED’
“The secretary-general is shocked by what the report has to say about
Mr. Sevan,” Annan’s chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, told a news
conference. “He very much doubts there can be any extenuating
circumstances to explain the behavior, which appears proven in the
report.”
But he noted, “we got a thumbs up” on administration of the program
and Iraq should be encouraged that the funds were used as intended.
Volcker said few institutions had subjected themselves to such
“intensity of scrutiny.”
The report also cited “convincing and uncontested evidence” that three
firms: Banque Nationale de Paris; the Dutch Saybolt Eastern Hemisphere
and Britain’s Lloyd’s Register Inspection were awarded contracts
without competitive bidding in 1996.
But Volcker said in the interim report — the final one will be in
June — the most serious violations of the U.N. sanctions involved
illegal oil sales outside oil-for-food.
“And there is no question that those sales were known by the
U.N. Security Council,” which included the United States.

A CIA (news – web sites) investigation in September found Saddam
earned $1.7 billion via kickbacks on goods and oil under the
program. He got an additional $8 billion in oil sales to Jordan,
Turkey and Syria, which were known to the council.

Volcker said he was concentrating on wrongdoing by U.N. officials.
Specifically, the report said Sevan had convinced Iraq to sell oil
allocations to African Middle East Petroleum company, an obscure
trading firm registered in Panama with offices in Switzerland and
Monaco.

The company is headed by Egyptian Fahkry Abdelnour, a cousin of
Boutros-Ghali. The deal was also helped along by Fred Nadler, the
former secretary-general’s brother-in-law, the report said.

He also questioned Sevan’s assertion that an aunt in Cyprus, now
deceased, had given him some $160,000 over several years. The trading
firm, according to Iraqi records, netted a profit of $1.7 million, the
report said.

Volcker said allegations of conflict of interest by Annan would be
handled in a later report. Annan’s son Kojo once worked in West Africa
for a Swiss firm Cotecna, under contract to the United Nations in
Iraq.

Annan has said he had no hand in assigning contracts and his son says
he had left the company when the deal was made.

Carnegie Corporation President To Visit To Honor County Schools
TheChattanoogan.com (Chattanooga, Tennessee)
February 2, 2005

The president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York will visit
Chattanooga Thursday to take part in “a celebration of the progress
and results in Hamilton County’s high school reform effort.”
Dr. Vartan Gregorian will also speak to the Rotary Club during his
visit.
The school celebration will be from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Red Bank
High School, 640 Morrison Springs Road.
The effort, `Schools for a New Society,” is funded with an $8 million
grant from the Carnegie Corporation with $6 million in local matching
funds provided by the Public Education Foundation.
Also speaking at the celebration will be County Mayor Claude Ramsey,
Dr. Jesse Register, Hamilton County schools superintendent; and Dan
Challener, president of the Public Education Foundation.
A `Gallery of Progress” will feature highlights of academy programs
at Hamilton County high schools.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE MISSION DOES NOT KNOW WHOM IT WILL MEET, AND WHAT ESTIMATION WILL
IT GIVE TO SITUATION IN “THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES”
YEREVAN, JANUARY 29. ARMINFO. To establish facts of creation of
Armenian settlement in the occupied Azerbaijani territories round
Nagorny Karabakh, the OSCE Mission intends to ascertain whether there
are people in the mentioned territories, where are they from, when and
in what connection, on their initiative or not. Russian Cochairman of
th OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov informed journalists in Yerevan on
behalf of the cochairmen of the OSCE MG.
According to him, the routes of the visit have been worked out, and
Sunday morning members of the delegation will leave for Stepanakert,
and from there within a week they will visit all the districts every
day. Commenting on the aforementioned terminology, in particular,
answering the question on the status of the territories was formulated
as “occupied” Merzlyakov mentioned it’s a translation from English. At
the same time he mentioned he does not know other Russian word.
Answering the question on how will be the estimation of the mission in
the case if Armenians, former citizens of Azerbaijan, were found, who
left their residences forcedly, Merzlyakov mentioned he is not a
supporter to forecast, “whom we shall meet there, and what the
estimation will be”. In this connection he also reminded that the
cochairmen are not a member of the group and the issue concerns the
members of the mission, and the cochairmen lead them. As regards the
visit to the districts of Aghdam and Fizuli, occupied by Karabakh
forces, Merzlyakov said that the mission has planned to visit these
districts, and the information on that the Azerbaijani side does not
insist on their visit, was not true. “Later Azerbaijani party made a
statement, I think, it was Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan
Mr. Araz Azimov, saying that “we had no materials concerning these two
districts, now we possess them and we shall hand over it to the leader
of the group”. There were such plans, that’s why we did not change our
plans – 7 districts, Merzlyakov said.
Answering the question on whether the mission’s members plan to visit
also the North Karabakh, Merzlyakov noted that, in his opinion, it is
an absolutely separate question. He also informed that during the
meetings in Baku the members of OSCE delegation were given documents
and photos. Merzlyakov reminded that this co-chairs’ visit to the
region is not usual and regular. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are in
the region not to discuss the issues on settlement of Nagorny Karabakh
conflict. He refused to comment on the PACE resolution adopted
recently. Merzlyakov introduced journalists with new French
co-chairman of OSCE MG Bernar Fassier and the Head of OSCE mission
Emily Haber, the Director of OSCE Department of Foreign Ministry of
Federal Republic of Germany.

Las Vegas Review-Journal, NV
Jan 28 2005
IMMIGRATION CASE: Girls get to stay in U.S.
Intervention ends deportation threat for LV teens
By LISA KIM BACH
Rouben Sarkisian and his daughter Elizabeth, 12, get emotional
Thursday after hearing that Sarkisian’s two oldest daughters, who are
incarcerated in Los Angeles and were facing deportation, will be
released today.
Photo by K.M. Cannon.
Palo Verde High School graduate Emma Sarkisian, 18, is shown in this
undated family photo made available to the Review-Journal.
Palo Verde High School student Mariam Sarkisian, 17, is shown in this
undated family photo made available to the Review-Journal.
Rouben Sarkisian celebrates Thursday after hearing that his two
oldest daughters, who are incarcerated in Los Angeles and were facing
deportation, will be released today.
Photo by K.M. Cannon.
Rouben Sarkisian’s despair over the looming deportation of his two
teenage daughters was transformed into delight Thursday, when
intervention from some of the highest levels of government secured
their release from federal custody and the dismissal of the case
against them.
“My heart is ready to leap out of my body,” Sarkisian said in Russian
while working at his Tropicana Pizza parlor in Henderson. “At first,
I didn’t believe it would happen so fast. This day gives me more and
more good surprises.”
Immigration officials are expected to release Emma Sarkisian, 18, and
Mariam Sarkisian, 17, today. The girls, who are being held in a Los
Angeles Detention Center, will be flown back to Las Vegas, and then
turned over to the custody of their father. The family has been
separated since the girls were arrested Jan. 14.
Both Emma and Mariam were born in Armenia but raised in the United
States. They emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1991 with
their father, who is a legal resident in the process of obtaining his
citizenship. Emma and Mariam have three younger sisters who are
American-born citizens.
Immigration officials were trying to deport Emma and Mariam to
Armenia. Neither teen speaks Armenian or has any means of support to
sustain them in that country.
The illegal status of the girls was not discovered until a trip to
the Department of Motor Vehicles sent them to Las Vegas immigration
officials for confirmation of their residency status in July.
Then the girls discovered they faced an outstanding order of
deportation. Until then, the family thought they were properly
documented. The girls were arrested two weeks ago when they complied
with a summons to report to the immigration office.
The girls’ difficulty is rooted in Sarkisian’s divorce from his
second wife, who was a U.S. citizen. Immigration officials told him
that his divorce voided the 1997 notice of acceptance of residency
applications sent to the girls by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Sarkisian said he was never informed of that. If he had been,
Sarkisian said, he would have corrected the situation immediately.
The plight of the family garnered much sympathy from residents, who
lobbied Nevada’s congressional delegation for relief.
Troy Baker, one of three attorneys working on behalf of the sisters,
said his understanding was that U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security
Tom Ridge deferred action on the case against the girls, which means
they no longer face deportation.
“The whole thing is over,” said Baker, who received the news after 6
p.m.
Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., asked Ridge to
intercede in the Sarkisian case. Sarkisian said Reid’s concern had
given him cause to hope.
“He has great heart,” Sarkisian said. “He is a humanitarian.”
Sarkisian was also thankful to the people who lobbied on behalf of
his children, including retired Archbishop Vatche« Housepian of the
Western Diocese of the Armenian Church in North America. He flew to
Las Vegas from Los Angeles on Monday to offer aid to the family and
their attorneys.
Baker said he believed the calls and e-mails of support people made
to lawmakers were vital in turning the tide.
“If you want to give props to where they should go, it’s to the good
citizens of Nevada who heard the story or read it in the newspaper
and got involved,” Baker said. “That’s what got Senator (Reid) to
take notice.”
The evening events erased the disappointments experienced by the
family in federal court Thursday morning.
Attorneys Baker, Jeremiah Stuchiner and Vladimir Goutsaliouk
unsuccessfully sought an order of release for the girls. U.S.
Magistrate Judge Robert Johnston said he could find no legal basis to
grant the request.
“I thought the judge would send them home,” said younger sister
Michele Sarkisian, 13, after the ruling. “At least he gave us more
time though. He didn’t deport them today.”
Sarkisian said the mental state of his daughters had been
deteriorating while in custody. The limited phone calls they were
able to make from Los Angeles were filled with tears. Emma,
especially, was growing increasingly depressed.
During the hearing, Johnston voiced concern about the welfare of the
girls and asked about the conditions of their detention.
Attorney Tom Walter, representing U.S. Immigrations and Custom
Enforcement, said he understood from officers at the Los Angeles
Detention Center that the girls were kept separate from the general
population and given access to family and legal counsel.
Stuchiner, who took the case for free, took issue with that
assertion.
Immigration officials did not tell the family where the girls were
being held for more than a week, he said. They lack access to
showers, he said, and on Thursday told him they had been without
toothbrushes and toothpaste since they arrived at the detention
center Jan. 14.
And, Stuchiner added, the girls’ access to their family was limited
to 12 minutes at a time, the duration of the phone cards they receive
while in detention.
“It’s ridiculous,” Stuchiner said. “It’s just silly to say the family
has access.”
Baker said family friends were permitted to deliver fresh clothes to
the girls on Thursday, as they prepared to return home.
Elizabeth Sarkisian, 12, plans to meet her sisters with Titi in tow,
the family mutt that Mariam loves best.
The separation has been a burden on the Sarkisian family, which
relies on Emma and Mariam to help run the family business. The
Sarkisians live in northwest Las Vegas, where Mariam attended Palo
Verde High School as a senior. Emma graduated from Palo Verde in
2004.
Mariam’s teachers have called the family to say that they will be
happy to help her catch up when she returns. While in detention,
Mariam missed her final exams.
The father had to fight back his tears Thursday morning when he
described his 10-year-old daughter’s worry for her sisters’ plight.
“Patricia, the youngest, comes to me every day and asks if it’s true
they will let Emma and Mariam go free today,” he said.
The decision to release the girls does not set any kind of legal
precedent, Baker said. Immigration officials have discretion within
the law.
The girls are still technically illegal, but the deferment means that
the father will be given time to obtain citizenship. Once he has
that, he can sponsor both his daughters for legal residency.
That was the solution defense attorneys had sought from the start.
Baker laughed when asked why immigration officials didn’t exercise
their discretion from the outset.
“They did,” Baker said. “They exercised it in the negative.”
For pictures:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE fact-finding mission visits Azeri Foreign Ministry
ANS Radio, Baku
28 Jan 05
The OSCE’s fact-finding mission, which is to investigate claims that
Armenia is illegally settling the occupied Azerbaijani territories,
and the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen started their meetings at the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry half an hour ago. The Baku government
will submit to the mission its information about the settlement of
Armenians in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands at the meeting. The briefing
to be held today with the cochairmen and the mission’s members will
clarify whether the mission is going to conduct monitoring in Agdam
and Fuzuli Districts.
The OSCE’s fact-finding mission will leave Baku for Yerevan and
Yerevan for the occupied territories tomorrow.
[Passage omitted: minor details]

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 28 2005
Council of Europe cannot recognize independence of Upper Garabagh’

The principle of self-determination of nations is not applicable to
Upper Garabagh, the PACE rapporteur on the Garabagh conflict David
Atkinson said in an interview with BBC. He said that upon
Azerbaijan’s admission to the CE the latter recognized the country’s
territorial integrity. If Azerbaijan agrees to meet the demand of
Armenians in Garabagh by granting independence to the region, the
Council of Europe may approve this step. However, it is clear that
Azerbaijan will never accept Upper Garabagh’s independence.
`Just like other international organizations, the CE cannot recognize
the independence of Upper Garabagh’, Atkinson added.*

Armenian president off to Italy
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
27 Jan 05
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has left for Italy on an official
visit. Robert Kocharyan will meet the Italian leadership in Rome.
During the meeting, a joint declaration of the two countries
presidents’ and an agreement on small and medium enterprises and
cooperation and mutual assistance between the customs authorities will
be signed.
In Vatican, Robert Kocharyan will be hosted by Pope John Paul II and
Vatican State Secretary Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
A delegation led by the Armenian president will also visit Venice,
where he will meet the mayor of Venice and representatives of the
Armenian Diaspora. The president will visit Murad Rafaelian School and
the Mkhitarian Brotherhood on St Lazar Island.
The president’s visit to Italy is aimed at deepening the
Italian-Armenian political dialogue, exchanging views on political
issues of mutual interest and exploring possibilities on cooperation
in international organizations.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress